CUT magazine's September issue
released on August 19 featured a very long interview (30,000
characters) with Miyazaki. Yoichi Shibuya, the best interviewer of
Miyazaki, drew out the true intentions of various things about Studio
Ghibli from Hayao Miyazaki and Toshio Suzuki. An abstract of interview
follows:
1. When I finished drawing the rough storyboards of the Great Kanto Earthquake
(1923) of part A, the Great East Japan Earthquake occurred on March 11
(storyboards are usually divided into four or five parts). I thought
about how I should do this plan. After having calmed down a little, I
thought that I did not have to change it at all and should continue.
2. I think it (the new film) is not a fantasy. There are some
elements of fantasy, but it's not fantasy. So, I don't know how to draw
it. I try to bite my tail and am turning round and round like a dog. I
draw the storyboards, throw them away, gather them back, rearrange, then
throw them away again (laughs). I'm cornered now.
3. I want to make a not shameful thing. I want to avoid the
label, "because Miyazaki was not able to draw the storyboards,
production was stopped." (laughs) Even if I fall down on the way, I want
to make a thing
that people want to know its sequel, like Soseki Natsume's last work
"Meian" (Light and Darkness). (laughs)
4. In the next film there are lots of huge crowds scenes.
Animators are already feeling dizzy at a recent meeting. So I say to
them, coolly, "all you have to do is draw!" They did not become
animators to draw a picture of a girl turned around. The reason why we
employed 30 new faces is that we drive them hard. They had better feel
toilsome first. I do not hesitate it.
5. I said to the staff members, "it will be revealed what we
should make while we make two films in three years." But I understood
that nothing became clear. (laughs) The world deepens in confusion more
and more.
6. Though I think this probably must be said off the record, I
make a movie of a man who developed a weapon of the war. This man had
talent most in Japan in those days. But he failed very hard. Because he
was not able to accomplish craftsmanship in defeat, his heart was torn
to shreds. But when I heard that he murmured "I wanted to make a
beautiful thing", I thought "this is it!"
7. I had thought why he made such a thing. Cannot make such a
thing without a motive to want to make a beautiful thing. This man is
not making a weapon. As a result, its motive made a beautiful thing, but
it was a high-performance weapon. In a sense he is a tragic character.
He failed though he did it as hard as possible. So, he finishes his life
as a very unsociable old man. (laughs)
8. I think it's ugly to die with unfinished storyboards.
9. The thing which I'm going to do is that which I had thought that I must not do it most. It's a very anarchic film.
10. I'm sorry but I bet all of Ghibli on this (new film).
11. Suzuki-san said at a meeting where I wasn't present, "this
takes three years". Somene reported this to me and I think it's no
problem even if it takes three years. I just think, "I'm 73 years old".
12. When I made Ponyo,
I said to the staff members, "you do not need draw a shadow!" But I
think "we draw a shadow this time! We draw a shadow thoroughly! All you
cry in a shadow!". Must not live in idleness. But they seem to live in
idleness. So I say, "do it until you have a bloody nose!"
13. I yell at staff members these days in the studio. I really do not want to yell. But I yell to make me strict with myself.
14. Because I prepared to bet all on this (new film), I want to do all of what I've endured so far.
15. I don't know whether new film becomes an answer to Japan
after the earthquake disaster. But I feel that we cannot solve a problem
only by saying "we followed a conventional way."
16. I have an idea of fantasy which I want to make. But I cannot
make it if I don't understand the world a little more. If I make it
now, it would be a lie. A gloomy fantasy, a shining fantasy, both become
a lie. I think that we are in such a place. Since before a nuclear
plant accident, after the Lehman shock, I had thought that the times not
to be able to make fantasy would come.
17. Though I think that I must finish drawing part B within this
year. (laughs) After the earthquake disaster, I'm just thinking in
circles. Anno is also just thinking about the last story of Evangelion
in circles. I understand his feeling well. But there is no help for it
even if we experience a wound with each other. Anno asked me, "Miya-san,
don't you have experience difficulty?" then I said, "No. I don't
experience difficulty." (laughs) But I actually have difficulty very
much.
18. When I feel bad, I want to smoke CHERRY furiously. I still have 6 cartons. I'm saving them carefully.
(JAPAN TOBACCO INC abolished CHERRY because a factory suffered damage in the earthquake disaster)
19. Soseki Natsume died at 49. Anton Chekhov died at 44. What am I doing? 70 minus 44 is 26 years! (laughs)
20. Q: Can we watch it in the year after next?
M: If it goes smoothly. But I don't know because nobody can draw it. The
thing which I really want to draw is beautiful so as to feel dizzy.
Probably only the Japanese can understand its beauty. But the Japanese
cannot draw it, too. It's interesting.
Toshio Suzuki:
I do not have a design.(laughs) This is a movie that Miya-san makes
freely. It takes two years at least. Though I think it's safe to talk
this, in a word, it's a story of the war. I thought that Miya-san must
make this. He has various thought about the war and reads a lot of
documents. So, I said "Miya-san, you should make this". It's the first
time that I said such a thing to him.
- NHK's Kokuriko-zaka documentary
that aired on August 9 showed pre-production work on Miyazaki's new
film including storybords and character designs by Miyazaki.
- Miyazaki on Sketchtravel
- Hayao Miyazaki's drawing is on the last page of Sketchtravel.
Miyazaki drew and painted it in 3 days during January 2011. The drawing
spreads over two pages and represents a young boy in front of a plane.
(NHK's Kokuriko-zaka documentary showed Miyazaki writing the plan paper
and drawing the storyboards.)
- Miyazaki visits the flight of RC 9-shi designed by Jiro Horikoshi.
Thanks to T. Ishikawa for the news.
--LLin 05:51, 1 October 2011 (UTC)
